Fear U.S.-Israeli war with Iran will drag on sends stocks plunging and oil price soaring

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that the “period of elevated energy prices” will be temporary, “but it will not be long,” as the Iran war continued into a second week. 

Oil and gas prices “shouldn’t go much higher than they are here because the world is very well supplied with oil,” Wright said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” He insisted there is “no energy shortage at all,” saying the U.S. is a large exporter of natural gas and although refineries in Europe and Asia are seeing “interruptions in their crude flows,” there are “massive energy stores around the world.” 

“What you want is emotional reactions and fear that this is a long-term war,” Wright said. “This is not a long-term war; it’s a temporary movement.” 

Wright said the U.S. still has 400 million gallons of oil in its strategic oil reserve, and “we’re more than happy to use that if it’s needed.” But he added that it’s a “logistics issue” because refineries in Europe and Asia need oil. 

“We’re just doing pragmatic things to get through a short period that will that will bring in an era of even lower energy prices because a major energy-producing region of the world, the Middle East, will no longer have a strong, powerful Iran that can threaten their neighbors, that can threaten the United States of America and that was not far away from a nuclear bomb,” said Wright. 

President Trump echoed the sentiment in a post on his Truth social media platform on Sunday, saying: “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for USA and World, Safety and Peace,” adding: “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”